Brooding
by brionyjae
Summary: Sirius Black was brooding. And Remus did not like it one tiny bit. RemusSirius Slash!


**Disclaimer: **Nope, Harry Potter and co. aren't mine, sadly enough.

**A/N: **-grins- Wow, an update! Unbelievable! Haha. Well, I just had to write this little one-shot because I needed a break from all my study etc. Although some of you, namely 'Not A Malfoy Anymore' fans, will be sad that I haven't updated with another chaptered story yet. **Important Announcement:** Never Fear! Because I think my muse is onto something… another story! HarryDraco! Woo hehe. And now that I have told all of you that I am writing another story, I will hopefully be kept to my word and will hurry up with it. :-) I only have random parts of it yet, not a complete start-to-finish story, but that's part of the fun. If any of you can think of anything you'd like to see in it, let me know, I'd love to hear from you. :-) I can't promise I'll be able to incorporate it, but it will sure get me thinking and therefore writing faster. :-) In the meantime, enjoy!

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_**Brooding**_

Sirius Black was brooding.

The overly cheerful, mischief maker, annoying-as-hell Sirius Black, was brooding.

And Remus did not like it one tiny bit.

Of course, Sirius did it so well. Remus cringed inwardly at the sight of Sirius' perfectly dull, unfocused eyes, and clenched his fingers when hearing his well-timed sighs. It was particularly distracting when he was reading, or trying to write an essay. He just couldn't _concentrate_ with Sirius brooding.

But the worst thing about Sirius brooding was his hair. It fell, lifeless, into his eyes and only briefly moved whenever Sirius sighed. Otherwise, it was just falling into Sirius' eyes – which irritated Remus to no end, giving him an unbidden urge to reach out and flick it behind his ear. Which then made Remus think about how Sirius' hair would feel between his fingers. Or, moving down a little, how his jaw line might feel, or his cheeks… which could only then lead to Remus wondering how it would feel to touch Sirius' lips with his own…

Which was a topic that Remus did not want to think about. At all.

So, whenever Sirius was brooding, Remus was inevitably in a bad mood. And such was the setting for this particular evening in the common room.

"Psst. Remus. Hey, Moony!" James nudged Remus in the arm, causing him to jerk ink all over the introduction to his Transfiguration essay.

"What, James?" Remus snapped, muttering a cleaning spell before sending James a quick glare, and turning back to his essay. James, however, was unperturbed.

"Have you noticed that Sirius seems to be acting a bit weird?"

Remus grunted noncommittally.

"I mean, weirder than normal. An _unhealthy_ weird."

Remus made a kind of 'humph!' noise.

"What I'm trying to say is… he's being quiet!"

Sighing, Remus gave in. He set down his quill and looked up. James nodded softly to where Sirius was sitting, and Remus followed with his gaze.

Sirius was curled up in an armchair near to them, but was staring into the fire with no acknowledgement of his surroundings. He had his arms crossed, and Remus bit his lip hard when he saw slivers of his black hair straying into his distant eyes. In other words, he was the picture of brooding – and of course, Remus had already noticed this. Remus turned back to James.

"I suppose he's a little off," he said carefully. James rolled his eyes.

"Moony, this is Sirius we're talking about. This is comparable to the time when Peter answered a question correctly in Charms – there is something seriously wrong."

"Well…" Remus had to admit, he made a fair point with Peter. "Yes, you're probably right."

"Of course I'm right. I'm always right," James said immediately. "But anyway. Padfoot. So, what are we going to do about it?"

"Excuse me?" Remus had half turned back to his essay, expecting that James would be satisfied with being told he was right.

"I said, what are we going to do about Sirius?" James whispered with an impatient roll of his eyes.

Remus turned back to look at Sirius. He was staring into space, and Merlin, his hair was still in his face. He looked so secluded, so… delectable; Remus swallowed thickly and quickly looked back at James before he imagined giving Sirius something to look at. Too late.

"So?" demanded James. Remus jumped.

"Uh, yeah. We, erm, definitely should do something to help cheer him up," Remus said, mentally kicking himself. He could not trust himself near Sirius when he was brooding. Maybe he could just help James and Peter think of something that the pair of them could just do…

"No, Remus. _You_ should definitely do something to help cheer him up."

"Yes, exactly," Remus quickly agreed with whatever James was suggesting, but then suddenly was hit with what he had actually said. "I mean, wait – WHAT?"

"I said that _you_ had to do something," James said. He smiled benignly.

"What! You want me to – what? Why? Why can't… we all do something. I'm, er, sure that he'll appreciate a joint effort from all of us, rather than just something I do," Remus rambled, his mind working in jumbles. He could not do such a thing!

"But Moony…" James had his 'please-do-me-a-really-huge-favour' voice on, the one he often used when he wanted the other Marauders to help him with yet another plot to get Lily. "You're the only one that Sirius really listens to. I mean, _really_ listens to."

"He listens to you as well!" Remus protested, making sure they were not being so loud that Sirius would hear them. Fat chance of that, with the dolt off in Merlin-knows-what-land. Sodding Padfoot.

"Yeah, but when it's something serious, he only listens to _you_, Remus," James waved his hand in the air, dismissing Remus' dispute.

"But what on earth could _I _do to cheer him up!" he hissed fiercely, hoping to scare James enough to force him to back down. Fat chance of that too.

"Well that's just it, you'll think of something. You're the brains, after all." James beamed at Remus, evidently believing that he had won the argument.

"But James! I… I can't!"

"Don't you want to see him happy?" James cocked his head and stared at Remus with almost puppy-like eyes, and Remus gritted his teeth. Sodding Padfoot, he should have to suffer his own brooding moods and leave him, Remus, out of it. He looked back over at Sirius, and shuddered. Oh no, he had to do something to stop Sirius brooding, or there was no telling what Remus might do… probably jumping the sod would be the first thing.

"Fine, I'll do it," Remus said, his eyes closed and his essay laying forgotten on the table. He opened his eyes to see James practically bouncing in joy.

"Yay! You're the best, Moony. I'm sure you're the only one who can cheer Padfoot up. He'll be back to playing pranks in no time!"

Remus couldn't help himself slapping his forehead. Great, he just couldn't win.

Over the next couple of days, Remus tried to think of something he could do to cheer up Sirius and stop his brooding. Buy him chocolates, or flowers? No, too girly. Make him a cheer-up card? No way, far too childish. Deliver him Severus Snape on a silver platter, gagged and ready for torture? Somehow he didn't think even that would work, not that Remus would be willing to lose so many house points to get Snape.

And because he was thinking about Sirius all day long, he couldn't avoid the boy appearing in his dreams too. Well. More than simply appearing, more being the central and only person in his dreams. It was just because he was focusing all of his energy on helping him, Remus told himself firmly, that Sirius was in his dreams. The fact that he was on top of him and kissing him furiously was not important. Not important at all.

Remus hoped that after these couple of days Sirius might have cheered up all by himself, so that he wouldn't have to do anything, but sadly, this was not the case. If anything, Sirius seemed even further away, on his own damned planet.

That night, James had engaged in a rowdy game of Exploding Snap with a sixth year (to try and impress Lily), and Peter was cheering him on encouragingly. However, Remus was trying to complete an especially nasty Potions assignment due in a week's time, and had no desire to sit with his hands over his ears to think. So he left the common room and headed up to the dormitory, seeing as curfew was soon approaching.

He thought he could get in some quality Potions time.

Not so.

Remus entered the dormitory and straight away recognized Sirius lying on his back on his bed, staring at the ceiling of his four-poster bed. He wondered whether to just ignore his friend, but knew he couldn't do that. So Remus dumped his bag onto his own bed and walked over to Sirius.

"Hi Padfoot."

Sirius moved his head and looked at Remus. He gave him a half smile, which Remus thought was a small improvement.

"Hey Moony."

"So, um, what are you doing?" Remus said, in an attempt at a conversation. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"I'm lying back thinking of London while Moaning Myrtle is giving me a blow job."

"Oh. Sorry for disturbing you two then," Remus replied lightly, trying to gouge a reaction from him. He got a small one in the form of an amused snort.

Remus shuffled his feet awkwardly, trying to think of something to say. He wasn't particularly comfortable with standing above Sirius, what with the fact that his eyes kept roaming to places they really shouldn't. Even though Sirius had resumed staring at the ceiling he seemed to sense Remus' discomfort, and moved his legs to the side. He motioned for Remus to sit, and so he did.

"Erm, well… how's life going for you?" Remus tried. Sirius shot him a look, his 'don't-tell-me-you-just-said-something-stupid' look. Remus grimaced and conceded with a nod. "What I mean is. Erm." His eyes caught the locks of Sirius' hair flopping in his eyes, and that spurred him to action. "What the bloody hell is wrong with you?"

Sirius raised an eyebrow and tilted his head to look at Remus properly.

"Wow, that was some pretty colourful language for you, Moony," he said smoothly.

"C'mon Sirius, we've all noticed how you don't seem to be… quite yourself lately," Remus said, ignoring Sirius' jibe. Sirius didn't say anything, so Remus continued. "We were just wondering if something was wrong."

"Something's wrong all right," Sirius snorted, but Remus could pick up the underlying sad tone. He bit his lip, his concern for the boy increasing.

"Well, we were wondering, um, if there was something we could do to cheer you up. We miss you." Remus cleared his throat, suddenly feeling a tad breathless. "I… _I _miss you, Padfoot."

At this, Sirius slowly sat up, now level with Remus, and looked straight into his eyes. There was something in Sirius' eyes that made Remus shiver. He averted his gaze.

"Remus…" Sirius began. He slid a fraction closer so that Remus looked back up at Sirius, startled, and realized with a jolt how close they actually were. But now, he couldn't look away. He mentally cursed himself; he knew that he wasn't to be trusted near Sirius!

His eyes inexplicably wandered to Sirius's hair, and he fisted his fingers tightly, resisting the urge. Oh, to Merlin with it. With achingly soft care, Remus reached up and tucked Sirius' hair behind his ear, and exhaled deeply. Sirius' lips finally quirked into a true smile, for the first time in days, and before Remus knew what was happening, Sirius' thumb was rubbing Remus' jaw line as if removing a smudge.

"Mmph?" Remus said intelligently, horrified that his voice had came out as a quiet croak. The skin around Sirius' eyes crinkled as his smile grew. Sirius was now so close that he could feel the boy's warm breath on his face. Almost hear Sirius' heartbeat. Remus closed his eyes. He couldn't do this.

Remus nearly jumped a foot into the air when something soft touched his lips. Sirius' lips. He parted them in automatic response, and Sirius gave a quiet whimper that made Remus feel quite lightheaded. Sirius' tongue slipped over Remus', and it was his turn to moan. Oh Merlin, this felt incredibly real, as opposed to how it had felt in his dreams.

This was all he had ever wanted. All he had ever dreamed for. How could it be real; how? Remus tangled his fingers in Sirius' damned hair, his whole body trembling. Sirius drew back.

"Moony? Are you alright?" he asked, his eyes no longer distant, but full of life.

"I won't be if you don't start kissing me again soon." Remus smiled shakily and placed a light kiss on Sirius' nose. Sirius laughed, actually laughed, and Remus grinned back. "Does this mean that you've stopped brooding?"

"Does this mean you've stopped being in a bad mood?" Sirius quipped in reply. Remus grinned and pressed his lips against Sirius' once more.

James was of course, absolutely right, like always, when he had said that Remus was the only one who could cheer Sirius up. So to speak.

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;-) Hope you liked that one, 'twas very fun to write. Love you, and don't forget to message me with ideas etc! :-)

brionyjae xox


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